Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Escape Velocity
While under pursuit from Klingons, the crew and the crew try to lose their pursuers on Q'kharr, a planet inhabited by dinosaur-like saurians. Summary Chapter One Onboard the , several Klingons are in meeting. The eldest among them, T'Krang, says that he recently received a transmission from K'holl stating that he found their blood enemy. Gor'goR says they should strike out now against their common enemy, but K'Ragdha says that this could be just a wild targ chase. K'Grall says that if anyone should have a say, it is K'hallA. An audio-only transmission from the comes online, and T'Krang reiterates what K'holl already told her. She says that they need to attack and kill Nox now instead of waiting. One by one, the rest of the Klingons say that they will go after their enemy. Gor'kang, who has been silent until now, speaks up: he tells them that, even though they're all agreed to continuing the hunt for Nox, none of them know where he is. Gor'goR says that they know that Nox is on the : Gor'kang reminds his twin brother that they do not know where the Admonitor is currently; but he does, and he shares that information with them. :The is in our space. Chapter Two Meanwhile, the ''Enterprise''-C and her sister ship have reached a remote planet on the edge of Klingon space near Gornar. Though they fear attacks from both the Klingon Empire and the Gorn Hegemony, here they are allowed some moments of peace in which to finish repairs on the Enterprise. This is not going well, since the amount of damage the ship has taken since Narendra III is considerable. Just then, the drops out of warp. T'Krang orders the captains to surrender the Romulan on their ship, since he is an enemy of the Klingon Empire. When Lianna Young refuses, the Klingons open-fire on the ''Admonitor'' and the ''Enterprise''-C. The Enterprise takes heavy damage, and Young considers leaving it behind to fend for itself. But Nox, without orders, fires quantum torpedoes at the K'Rada, dealing heavy damage and stranding the ship in space. Young chides Nox for doing an action without her order, but is secretly happy that she doesn't have to deal with the Klingons. Meanwhile, the ''Enterprise'' is almost dead in the water. Shield begins asking for options. Rookwood, in an attempt to redeem herself for her mutinous behavior, suggests hiding the Enterprise-C in the dark side of the nearby planet: its slow orbit and three moons help to mask anything on its dark side. Shield likes the idea, and orders the helm to set a course for the dark side of the planet. Once they reach the dark side, Shield keeps the crew on the ship in order to affect the repairs. Dying with curiosity about this new planet, Shield takes Rookwood, Loghri and Liin down with him to explore this new planet, leaving Werner in charge. When Young hears from Werner that Shield took a shuttle-pod down to the planet to explore, leaving her to apparently "safe-guard a ruined Enterprise", she gets mad and orders the ''Admonitor'' to enter orbit. She takes Jenkins and Werner, leaving Nox in charge of the ship, and beams down onto the planet to confront Shield, spit-fire angry. As she sets out to find them, Jenkins, who has been scanning the planet for life-forms, makes this statement: :There are dinosaurs down there. Chapter Three Three other Klingon vessels drop out of warp near the planet, which Gor'kang identifies as Q'kharr, the forest of great beasts. Seeing the damaged ''K'Rada'', they beam the survivors aboard their ship and then prepare to send hunting parties down onto the planet to find the Federation-''petaQ'' that insulted them by leaving a wrecked ship alone without destroying it. Meanwhile, on the planet proper, the away-team from the meets Shield and his crew from the . Young is furious at being treated like nothing more than a sentry for a damaged ship, and makes it quite clear to Shield. He agrees to let her join him (if only to keep her quiet), and they continue their search of the planet. The first forms of life they encounter are carnivorous plants. These attempt to eat some of them, but Shield's jian cuts right through them, keeping for them a clear path. As they continue their march through the dense jungle, their tricorders detect several Klingon life-signs that just appeared on the planet (meaning they beamed down). The crew becomes frantic, but Shield and Young pull them together. Shield is determined to return to the ship safely, whereas Young wants to kill the Klingons on sight. Two hours later, the crew comes upon a great open grass-land that marks the end of the jungle... And here, they find the "dinosaur" creatures. Chapter Four As they admire these behemoths of an age long past (and as Wess does his best to say that this proves evolution), another noise rends the air. Soon the herd of dinosaurs goes into a stampede to get away from something in the woods. The away team runs with them, trying to get away from whatever it is. Shield sees that they are raptors, who have attacked a straggler triceratops. Shield stops to defend it, and is reprimanded for holding them up by Young. When they return to where the others have stayed, they are captured by Klingons. Shield fears that it is his fault that they were discovered. Chapter Five K'holl interrogates them on the whereabouts of the fugitive of Klingon justice, but gets nothing out of them. Just as he prepares to use force, three tyrannosaurs attack. Shield muses that these saurians must not be true dinosaurs since they do not behave as evolution would have them behave (even though he doesn't believe in evolution at all). In the nick of time, the , piloted by Nox on Manual Override, swoops in and kills two of the three attacking tyrannosaurs. With the last one coming, all hope seems lost...until the triceratops saved by Edward Shield comes to their rescue. It catches the tyrannosaur on its unprotected belly with its three horns and a bloody battle ensues. The tyrannosaur's teeth are designed for scavenging, not for killing, so its teeth fall out as it tries to bite the triceratops in self-defense. The tyrannosaur then strikes a rock, and its back is broken. It cannot save itself and will die off shortly. Before the Klingons can attack, the Admonitor comes back for another pass, beaming up all the members of the two ships crew. Once safely aboard, they return to the ''Enterprise''-C, now in better shape, and leave Klingon space. Category:Story Arc: Nox Clan versus House of Azetbur Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes